Heavenly Virtues
by Anrixan
Summary: Chastity, Abstinence, Liberality, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, Humility, and Justice; the 8 Heavenly Virtues. In this case, these virtues may be more lethal than the vices... Takes place after chapter 212!


**October 19, 2009. This is something that I've had on my computer for quite some time and I do want to continue it. I'm hoping that posting the first chapter will give me some kind of inspiration to write more chapters quickly! Like the summary says, this takes place after Chapter 212! I hope you enjoy!**

**I**

School vacations always seemed too short, but this specific one was nothing more than a blur. Even though it was one of the semester's longest breaks, spending the beginning of it training with Kisuke Urahara, then the rest of it in the Soul Society to rescue Rukia Kuchiki, Ichigo Kurosaki didn't have any time to relax for a while. Now things were back to normal, per se, and all he had to worry about for the moment were his substitute Shinigami duties keeping him up at all hours of the night and interrupting him during the day whenever a Hollow wanted to terrorize a soul. It had been a few days since he arrived back to Karakura town, but he hadn't been able to catch up on sleep and felt exhausted during his homeroom class that morning as his teacher, Miss Ochi, took roll.

_A few extra hours of sleep last night would've done wonders…_ He thought, covering his mouth as he yawned. Shaking his head a little to try to wake himself up, he rested his elbow on the desk and placed his chin in the palm of his hand before glancing around the room. Everything looked so normal, which almost annoyed him for he was losing sleep and no one was even aware of how he saved lives every night. Everyone was still the same in the class, including Miss Ochi, although her hair looked longer than it was before the break, and of course, Rukia Kuchiki, who was still drawing little bunnies all over her notebook.

Noting that one of the bunnies had tribal tattoos on its forehead and the other had a zanpakutou that looked quite like Zangetsu, Ichigo wondered where she was going with the drawings, if anywhere at all. Most of all, he wondered why she didn't seem as worried or concerned as he was that a Hollow or a bored Arrancar was going to appear to put a wrench in his day.

At the thought, he looked down at the badge that Ukitake-taichou of the 13th Court Guard Squads gave him before leaving Seireitei after saving Rukia from execution. _The Seal of Approval for Acting Shinigami or whatever he said it was…_Ichigo recalled, grabbing the object and holding it in his free hand as a silent prayer that it would stay dormant for the next seven hours while he was in class.

"Kurosaki." Looking up, he saw Miss Ochi in front of him, her hand out and motioning with her fingers. Even though he knew that she wasn't able to see the skull badge, he still gripped it tighter. "The homework from vacation?"

"Oh, sorry," he apologized with a sigh of relief, handing her the notebook with all of his work. He still wasn't sure how he was able to have time for homework with all of his extracurricular Hollow killing activities and still be in the top 50 students in his grade, but he was still relatively proud of himself, to Keigo Asano and Mizuiro Kojima's disdain.

"Thank you," she replied, placing it in the stack in her arms and moving to the next row, pointing to Rukia's drawings and adding, "cute!"

Before Ichigo was even able to look at the proud look that Rukia was shooting him over the compliment of the drawings, he looked over to where Tatsuki Arisawa was sitting, remembering full and well how she could see the Seal of Approval that was attached to his belt not too long before. Ukitake-taichou told him that 'normal humans' couldn't see it, but she was able to see it clear as day. Orihime Inoue, Yasotora Sado – or Chad, as everyone else called him, – and Uryuu Ishida could see it as well, but Ichigo knew that they weren't considered 'normal humans.' After Tatsuki made mention of it, Miss Ochi walked in the room so he couldn't ask her further how she was able to see it… and then he forgot to ask Rukia or even Kisuke Urahara about it.

_Damn it, then Shinji entered the picture… as well as the Arrancar…_ It made sense to why it slipped his mind, but he made a mental note to go to the Urahara Shop after school to further investigate. Looking over at Rukia again, who was starting to draw more little bunnies, he planned to ask her to use that mind replacement contraption she had so Tatsuki wouldn't remember seeing it in the first place. Just as he was about to put the badge in his pocket to prevent her questioning him again, the badge alarm went off, causing him to jump in his seat, as well as everyone in the room who was able to hear it.

Miss Ochi placed all the homework on her desk and whipped her head over to where he was sitting. "Ichigo, are you all right?"

"Uh, yeah," he said quickly, sitting up straight in his chair. "Just thought I saw a bee or something." He even winced at his lame excuse but his teacher seemed to buy it and even turned her back toward him to start writing the day's notes on the board, so he was off the hook for the moment.

Rukia, feeling her cell phone vibrate, reached into her shirt to grab it, being the only place to hold it in the uniform without a faculty member reprimanding her for having it in her front breast pocket. Flipping it open, she looked at Ichigo. "It's close to here."

Leaning closer to Rukia, he whispered, "Can't Toushirou or Rangiku-san take care of it? We're in school." Even though they all appeared in school uniforms a few days prior, they had already stopped going to school and instead focused on the reconnaissance mission that Yamamoto-soutaichou sent them on. Rukia, on the other hand, felt that going to school was somewhat of a good idea. Ichigo felt that she was just trying to terrorize and babysit him.

"It's too close to here and Hitsugaya-taichou will see that." Grabbing Ichigo by the lapels on his shirt, she gave a strong tug and said, "Let's go."

Ichigo nearly fell out of his seat, so knowing he didn't have a choice but to leave the classroom, he said, "Excuse us, sensei! We'll be right back!!" He then ran out of the classroom with Rukia.

Everyone in the classroom murmured, and Miss Ochi simply put her hands on her hips and said, "They couldn't have waited until after school?" With a shrug, she quieted down the class and began her lecture.

"Kurosaki-kun…" Orihime whispered from her seat, knowing that she shouldn't make a scene even though Rukia and Ichigo just made one. She looked at the doorway for a moment before making eye contact with Chad. "Do you think… we should stay here?"

"Mm." His response was accompanied by a small nod, remembering how Ichigo told them it was unnecessary to follow him the first time they chased him out of the classroom when the seal went off. "They'll be fine."

Less discreetly, Keigo turned to Tatsuki and asked, "What is going on with Ichigo and Rukia-chan!? Are they dating and I don't know about it!? What happened over the break!?"

Keeping her eyes on the door, feeling angry that no one could hear the loud alarm with the exception of a few people; Orihime, Chad, and Uryuu as far as she could tell by their reactions, simply shook her head and said, "It's something else entirely."

--

"You really don't care that people have already started rumors and that they're only going to progressively get worse if you keep doing that to me in the middle of the classroom, do you?!" Ichigo said as he and Rukia ran through the hallways of Karakura High School at full speed, following the weight of the reiatsu that the Hollow was giving off.

Ignoring him completely, she flipped her cell phone open again to watch the little green arrow move around on the screen, displaying the Hollow's exact location. "It's right near the junior high and coming toward the high school's track field. We'll probably get to it just in—"

"Oi!" Mr. Kagine exclaimed as the two of them bolted past where he was standing. "Kurosaki! Kuchiki! What are you doing out of class!? Go back to your room!"

Stopping at the sound of the gym teacher's voice, Rukia shut the top of her phone and tried to hide it in the palm of her hand before turning around. "My apologies, Kagine-sensei. I didn't even see you there," Rukia said in a higher pitched voice and even added a slight curtsy, hoping that being polite and humble would get them out of trouble.

Narrowing his eyes at Rukia, Mr. Kagine pointed to the object as it beeped again. "Cell phones are not allowed in school, you know this. I would expect this kind of behavior from a delinquent like Kurosaki, but not from you, Rukia-chan."

"Delinquent!?" Ichigo exclaimed in surprise, receiving a glare from Mr. Kagine causing him to shut his mouth even though he was clearly aggravated.

As her cell phone continued to beep in her hand to warn her that the Hollow was coming even closer to Karakura High, she grabbed the handkerchief out of her breast pocket and worked up tears as quickly as possible. "I'm sorry, sensei. I know it's against the rules to have cell phones, but, you see… my mother is very sick and is ordered by her doctor to stay in bed at all times."

"Ru…Rukia-chan, please don't cry!" Mr. Kagine said, putting his hands up and leaning closer to her, unable to see Ichigo's eyes fixed on Rukia's hand behind her back. Although the skull badge's alarm continued to go off, it wasn't going to cause any form of trouble for no one could hear it. Ichigo, however, had started to grow accustomed to it because it had been going off pretty much nonstop since he returned back from Soul Society. Conversely, Rukia's phone was loud and clear… Ichigo wondered why she turned the sound back on in the first place.

After a quick sniff and a wipe of her eyes, Rukia continued. "It's just… the only reason to why I have this cell phone is to talk to her, for… we never know when her last moment will be…" Rukia turned away from the teacher and placed her face in her hands.

Adverting his attention from Rukia, he looked up at Ichigo who was standing there with his hands in his pockets. "What's _your_ excuse for being out of class then, Kurosaki?"

Not thinking that he was going to have to enter this conversation or try to defend himself, he blinked blankly. "I…"

Whipping around again, Rukia said quickly, "he saw how distraught I was when my mother called me and I missed the call that he was escorting me out to the courtyard so I could talk to her."

"Yeah, that's... it," Ichigo said, giving Rukia a pat on the back. "So, if you'll excuse us…"

Before Mr. Kagine was able to protest, Ichigo grabbed Rukia by the arm and began pulling her in the direction of the front door as quickly as possible. "Maybe it would've been a good idea to switch to Shinigami before we left the school."

"Yeah, perhaps that _would've_ been a good idea if you would've listened to me in the first place and packed Kon in your bag to stay in your body." Shoving Ichigo's hand off of her arm, she added, "But no, you have to be too worried about your 'precious image' that you've worked so hard on over the past few years."

Pushing the door open, they both ran to the left side of the school. "Shut up! There's not a chance in hell of me bringing a _stuffed animal_ to school with me! Also, what do you think is the chance of Kon being able to stay _quiet_ all day while being stuffed in my bag without air? He can't even stand being in my room by himself for an hour!"

"But, it would be helpful in times like this!" She reached into her shirt again for the Soul Candy.

"Stop reaching into your damn shirt!" He exclaimed, hopping over the high fence and using the badge to have his soul separate from his body when he landed.

"Sorry! I got in trouble for putting my phone in the front pocket so I needed an alternate place!" Pressing down on the top of the bunny head, the Soul Candy popped out, which Rukia swallowed. Separating from her gigai, she said, "Chappy, look after that careless idiot's body!"

With a small salute, Chappy ran over to where Ichigo's body was lying in a heap. "Yep, yep!"

Grabbing the hilt of Zangetsu so the ribbon unwound itself from the blade, Ichigo stated, "I don't trust that modified soul of yours in charge of watching over my body. Last time, she nearly broke my arm and I had full control of myself then! My body is defenseless to her tactics now!"

"She's better than leaving my gigai lying around so people can find it like you do with your body. Haven't we had this conversation before!?" Now that they had the Hollow's full attention, it turned and roared at them.

"Hoero, Zabimaru!"

Ichigo continued running, despite the cry that was heard and easily recognized, and shot a glare at Rukia. "I thought you said that we were the closest ones to the Hollow, Rukia!"

"Renji!" Rukia exclaimed, watching her friend's Zanpakutou strike the Hollow and knock it down.

"Getsuga tenshou!!" With Ichigo's command, a burst of energy shot out of the tip of his zanpakutou in a blue arc and sliced clear through the Hollow. With a final roar, the Hollow's form dissolved into thin air and Ichigo landed safely on the ground next to Renji.

Taking a few steps toward the spot that the two men were standing, Rukia began, "Renji, what are you—"

"What the hell are you doing here, Renji!?" Ichigo shouted, extremely close to Renji and not letting go of Zangetsu quite yet. "Rukia and I are more than capable of taking down one damn Hollow without anyone having to come to our aid! Especially aid from you!"

Releasing an annoyed sound from his throat, Renji shot back, "You two were in school so I figured you wouldn't be able to get out! I damn near finished it off before you finally got your asses out here, so you were lucky I was in the area to stop it so it wouldn't actually reach the courtyard!"

"In the area?" Rukia repeated, ignoring their little squabble since it did happen quite often. "Renji, you were at Urahara's shop when my soul pager went off about five minutes ago. It said that Ichigo and I were by far the closest ones to that Hollow, otherwise we probably _wouldn't _have left class. "

"Uh…" Looking around sheepishly, Renji returned Zabimaru to its sealed state and then sheathed it away. "Why _are_ you still going to class anyway, Rukia? Out of the six of us who are staying in the real world, you're the only one who insists on going."

Crossing her arms across her chest, Rukia flashed a smirk. "Oh I see. You saw the opportunity to leave the shop and avoid more teasing from Jinta and Ururu, Freeloader? Perhaps going to school to get away from them would be a better way to get out every once in a while, you know."

"Shut up." He knew she was being sarcastic in her remark, but she always knew how to get under his skin. "I could go to school, but Yamamoto's schooling was enough for me in my Shinigami lifetime, thanks. Not to mention that I don't want to look like a fool in that school uniform like Ichigo does."

"You don't need to wear a school uniform to look like a fool, Renji," Ichigo stated as he walked toward Chappy and his body, missing the angry look that Renji was giving him. "Anyway, Rukia, we should head back to class now before more talk ensues."

Shaking his head, Renji let out a sigh to calm himself down. "I don't understand why you decided it was necessary to both leave class to take on one Hollow. Going solo would've been just as efficient and a lot less suspicious to why you needed a group fieldtrip."

"And I still don't understand why you felt it necessary to flash step six blocks to take care of a Hollow that Rukia and I could've taken on by ourselves," Ichigo countered, trying to grab his body out of Chappy's hands, who found it amusing to keep it out of reach. "Let me go!"

"At least it was just the two of us, Renji." Rukia looked up at the building, hoping that no one was looking out the window to see Chappy holding what looked very much like an unconscious Ichigo. "More talk could ensue if Inoue or Chad followed us out here, and I'm surprised that they didn't. The smaller the numbers, the easier it is to make up excuses for leaving."

--

"Well… what do you think, Humility?"

Humility, perched on the corner of the fence that surrounded one of the balconies on the upper level of Karakura High School, stretched out her arms above her head and watched Rukia go back into her gigai. "Interesting. Very interesting."

"I'm glad that you think that. I, on the other hand, am bored."

Humility shook her head as she looked over at the other woman next to her. "We're going to leave in a few minutes, Diligence. Just as soon as they go back inside. I gotta say though; the Hollow was good bait."

Using her thumb and forefinger, Diligence grabbed a few strands of hair from her ponytail to look at the edges and check for split ends. "Yeah, I thought it would be the best way to lure out the Substitute Shinigami, but I didn't think he'd fall for it so easily. I find that rather amusing."

"Agreed." Crouching down, Humility hugged her knees and continued to watch the three of them talk down on the courtyard. She felt her lips turn into a smile as Ichigo was able to go back into his body as easily as he did without any form of resistance at all. "He's a lot different than I thought he would be, although I'm not sure why I thought it would be any other way. We were told that he was 'special,' but his level of audacity could also be referred to as 'foolishness.' Leaving his body lying around like that is more than careless."

"Definitely a job for Chastity, wouldn't you say?" Exchanging a nod from Humility, Diligence let out a sigh. "All right, we did our recon and that was all that was asked from us. We'll get in trouble if we do anything more, so can we go home now?"

A simple flick to the air was all it took for the folds of Earth's reality to unzip and make a path back to Hueco Mundo. "You're right. Our sisters would be very angry if they missed out on all the fun, now, wouldn't they? Besides, I don't want all the credit."

"Of course you don't." She walked in front of Humilty to enter the void that was created. "This town is kind of nice though. Homey, if you will, with the large influx of spiritual power that it gives off."

Humility couldn't help but let out a short laugh as she said, "I think that's half the reason to why Aizen-sama is going to destroy it." She followed her sister past the threshold, allowing it to close up behind her.


End file.
